This day in history: Closure of barge traffic on Columbia hampered shipment of record wheat crop. Dynamite accident injured construction workers

From 1975: The Columbia River was closing to barge traffic for two weeks – and the timing was unfortunate.

Wheat farmers were in the midst of harvesting a record crop. Normally, a great deal of that wheat would be barged down the Columbia.

Now, said one wheat farmer, “it will add to the more than normal amount which is already lying on the ground.”

The closure was necessary to repair a lock at the John Day Dam. It was damaged earlier in the year when “five barges being pushed by a tugboat struck an upstream gate.”

The Army Corps of Engineers, which runs the dam, said they had “no choice” but to close the river for repairs. The timing had been agreed to earlier by the wheat industry and barge companies, but “no one anticipated a record harvest.”

An official for the Washington Wheat Commission was somewhat optimistic, saying, “It’s not a crisis, but an irritating inconvenience.”

From 1925: The three workmen were tamping a charge of dynamite into a rock at First Avenue and Grant Street when “the charge went off suddenly,” hurling them into the air.

One of the men suffered burns and the loss of one eye. The others suffered burns and many cuts and bruises.

The men and their supervisors were at a loss to explain why the charge went off prematurely.

They were preparing a site for a new Union Oil service station.

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

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